The year is flying by, and so are our readers' picks for software, hardware, and other tools. Come on in to see the winners of our Hive Five polls for the second quarter of 2009.
Every week we pose a question to you, the savvy and experienced Lifehacker readers. Pulling from current trends, popular reader suggestions, and our own brainstorming sessions, we search out the next 'Which is best?' question to put before the collective knowledge of the Lifehacker readership. We read all your comments, tally all your votes, and summarize the top five contenders for you. You vote on the best of the best and we return the next week with the champion.
The following list showcases the winners in each of the categories we covered in the second quarter of 2009. If a particular category catches your eye and you'd like to see the other contenders, click on the name of the category to to jump to the original Hive Five post; clicking on the name of the winner takes you directly to the web site for the software.
Best Image Editing Tool: Adobe Photoshop
Photoshop has achieved such status in the design community and such widespread recognition by the general public that even non-designers recognize what someone is saying when they exclaim, 'That's photoshopped!' Many of the techniques and methods that are standard across photo editing software were pioneered in Photoshop, like layers, slices, and image correcting macros and filters. On its own Photoshop is a titan of photo editing power, but thanks to a nearly complete dominance in the graphic editing industry, there are entire companies devoted to creating plugins for it. When it comes to manipulating images, if you can't do it in Photoshop, there's a strong chance you won't be able to do it at all. Photo by HVarga.
Best Portable Operating System: Ubuntu
The same qualities that make Ubuntu so popular as a desktop operating system and live CD bring it a lot of popularity as a portable operating system. Ubuntu isn't the smallest portable OS in the portable operating systems Hive Five, but thanks to a number of factors, including strong saturation in the Linux market and an easy to use tool built right for flash-drive installations, Ubuntu makes a great addition to your portable drive.
Best Screen Capture Tool: Snagit
Snagit is as far removed from the classic Print Screen school of screen captures as possible. Snagit helps you capture both still images and grab frames from video. You can capture your entire screen or regions of it, and thanks to a robust profile system, you can create profiles for all manner of capture techniques. Whether you only want to generate a screen capture after a menu is activated or you want every screen capture to be automatically uploaded to a server, you can create a Snagit profile to fit your purpose. On top of the highly customizable feature set, Snagit offers a built in editor for annotating your screenshots and adding basic effects. Finally, the app's screenshot organizer keeps your grabs in order with date, name, and tag-based searching. Snagit also has the ability to easily capture images from objects that are larger than the screen.
Best Malware Removal Tool: Spybot Search & Destroy
Spybot Search & Destroy has made quite a name for itself over the years, earning accolades from both general and computer-focused publications. Spybot Search & Destroy is the highest ranked freeware tool at 2Spyware.com, a website that ranks malware removal tools. In addition to scanning for malware, Spybot Search & Destroy also has a variety of additional functionality, including a botnet scanner, hosts-file modification (to keep malware from calling home), a secure file shredder, and a dummy code feature (it replaces malicious or questionable adware modules with inert code so the dependent program will keep functioning). As an added bonus Spybot Search & Destroy is compatible with every version of Windows dating back to Windows 95.
Best Free Data Recovery Tool: Recuva
Recuva is a user-friendly Windows-based tool. When you run Recuva, you can resurrect missing files using either the file-recovery wizard or the application's manual mode. The file-recovery wizard is handy when you're sure your data is gone but you're not quite sure where it went or how to get it back. The wizard lets you narrow your search type to pictures, music, documents, video, or all files, and you can set the search location to everywhere on your computer, removable media only, in My Documents, the Recycle Bin, or a specified location. If you don't need the wizard you can jump right into manual mode and get to work searching where you know the file should be. Recuva uses a green/yellow/red light system to indicate how probable the recovery of your files will be, and when available, it can provide previews of image files available for recovery. Recuva also includes a tool to securely wipe files you find, handy if you're attempting a file recovery just to ensure the files are actually dead and gone.
Best Journaling Tool: Pen and Paper
Long before people were pecking out their missives on typewriters, let alone keyboards, they were quietly scribbling them onto paper. In an age of instant sharing and easy digitization, many of you showed a strong affinity for recording your most private moments with the solidly analog and difficult to share medium: pen and paper. For many Lifehacker readers there is no substitute for the privacy and ease of use that comes with keeping an old fashioned paper-based journal. Among the variations of the pen and paper motif you submitted, readers showed a distinct passion for high-quality pens and Moleskine notebooks. Rich paper and smooth flowing ink is apparently the icing on the cake of analog journaling. Photo by MShades.
Best Exercise Planning and Tracking Tool: RunKeeper
RunKeeper turns your iPhone into an exercise tracking tool. Once installed you can monitor your speed, how far you run, and track your route on a map. You can review your data on the iPhone itself or upload the data to the RunKeeper website for analysis. The pro version includes audio feedback to make the application easier to use hands free, announcing how far you've run and other relevant stats. Finally, if you're so inclined you can have RunKeeper update your favorite social tools like Twitter or Facebook with workout updates. For more, check out our guided tour of RunKeeper.
Best MP3 Tagging Tool: Mp3Tag
Mp3Tag is a an MP3 tagging tool with a rather spartan interface which lends itself to easy use. You can batch edit your MP3 tags, including iTunes specific tags like media type or TV Show settings. If your MP3 files are named with tags in the file name like band-album-track-title.mp3, you can tell Mp3Tag to convert the naming convention of your files into the actual tags. You can also go in the opposite direction, renaming your files to reflect their tags. The latter trick is handy if you'd like to make the file name easily recognizable during searching and also have a backup of sorts should the ID3 tag become corrupted or overwritten with an incorrect tag. Mp3Tag also supports expression-based renaming, allowing you to easily reformat the naming convention or formatting style of your files. Mp3Tag supports multiple online databases such as Freedb, Amazon, Discogs, and more for easy tag importing.
Best Netbook: ASUS EEEPC 1000HE
When netbooks first appeared onto most peoples' radars, it was because of the earlier EEEPC models gaining surprising popularity several years ago. ASUS has continued to crank out rock-solid netbooks, building their reputation in large part to some of the longest battery lifes. While they claim 9.5 hours under ideal conditions, under real world conditions it's more like 6—still radically better than the 3 hours you can squeeze out of most netbooks. The 1000HE sports a 92% size keyboard and a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 1.3MP webcam, 10.1" display, Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth for connectivity, and weighs in at 3.2 pounds. Every ASUS netbook comes with 10GB of online storage, free for 24 months after purchase.
Best Alternative File Copier: TeraCopy
TeraCopy is one of the best known alternative file copiers, winning people over with an interface and functionality that one might call 'just advanced enough'. TeraCopy integrates with the Windows shell for drag-and-drop support and includes a solidly laid out right-click menu. It doesn't overwhelm you with a plethora of settings or options, but it provides enough advanced functionality to speed up file copying, notify you when files don't copy correctly, and allow you to bulk approve overwriting, renaming, and skipping of duplicate files. TeraCopy is also available in a portable version. The $21 Pro version adds the ability to select files by extension and remove files from the queue without having to start over.
Best Recipe Manager: Paper
Traditionalists rejoice! Despite the creep of technology into all realms of our lives, many of you have eschewed search-friendly text, embeddable images, and virtual recipe sharing for storing your recipes traditionally on paper. Not all of you hand wrote your recipes—some printed and stored them—but there is a certain intimacy that comes with keeping handwritten recipes that some of you haven't abandoned. The votes for paper-based systems were scattered among 3-ring binders, bound notebooks, and 3x5 cards. Paper is an excellent and timeless choice for those wanting to avoid whisking an egg all over your laptop screen. Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography.
Best Clipboard Manager: Ditto
Ditto is a portable clipboard manager with a hefty feature list. Not only does Ditto support plain text, but it can also copy formatting and even images. You can search your stored text clippings and synchronize multiple copies of Ditto together to update your clippings across computers. Ditto has full unicode support, so you can paste foreign and non-standard characters without a problem. You can group together your clippings to keep things organized by task or project, as well as assign hotkeys to frequently used clippings. On top of the user-defined hotkeys, Ditto sports over a dozen built-in hotkeys for entering, searching, and retrieving your clippings.
The second quarter of 2009 was just as packed with goodies as the first, including everything from portable operating systems to recipe management. If you have a topic you're dying to see covered in future Hive Fives, drop us a line at tips at lifehacker.com with 'Hive Five' in the subject line to ensure your wishes get forwarded to the proper helper elves.
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